Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:53:57 -0700
From: hchen100@gmail.com
Subject: Hard to Explain Chapt. 1
Yes, there's a little bit of me written into it. What's time-consuming and
probably not enjoyable is picking out which parts are from my life, and
which parts are fictitious.
Disclaimer: Homosexual content. May even contain sex(gasp). Not to be read
in church or in class. Did I miss anything else? I'm so bad at this...
Hard to Explain
Chapt. 1
"I said, `Please don't slow me down, if I'm going too fast...You're in a
strange part of our town.'"
-- The Strokes
He loved going to Armani Exchange. Not for the clothes, no,
although they were nice--but for the live underwear models, the ubiquitous
posters plastered on every wall. He loved that feeling of being somewhere
that catered to gay men explicitly. He couldn't find the same feeling in a
gay bar, so he avoided those. For the same reason, he avoided his hometown.
Daniel "Danny" Coltrane was born in Podunk, Connecticut. The town's
claim to fame, beyond its name, was the Podunk Bluegrass Music Festival,
held during the summer. People from other counties came. It was the
showcase for society--if you were at all important, you were involved
somehow with the festival. The previous generations of the Coltrane family
had only been attendees, and the current generation was no different. So
far. Danny was to show Podunk just how much one individual could change the
town's entire attitude.
The summer was shaping up to be different for Danny. Not only had
he graduated from high school, but he was also eighteen now. Legal: the
thought flashed through his mind like a marquee. Legal for what, though?
He'd never met anyone gay (at least openly) in Podunk. Danny had known that
he was gay from the time he fully understood what sex was. He threw no fit,
did not struggle to come to terms with himself, and had no qualms. Danny
intuitively understood that being gay was something he could not change
about himself. Danny also intuited that telling his family would result in
disaster. Therefore, he resolved to leave Podunk behind. It was too
enclosing for him.
During the fall of his senior year, Danny had applied to several
colleges. The University of San Francisco, Boston College, Columbia
University had all drawn his attention--USF most of all. He had heard of
the Mecca of the gay world. To Danny, San Francisco also epitomized the
metropolitan city, the utter antithesis of Podunk. He yearned for the city
life, where events were being held across the city daily. That compared to
the Podunk Bluegrass Music Festival seemed to Danny the most obvious
choice. His parents did at first try to discourage Danny. Nobody in the
Coltrane family had ever gone off to a major city, let alone a prestigious
university. Danny didn't allow himself to be dissuaded; he felt that he
would be able to fully express himself in that new environs. After several
months of waiting, the letters came. USF and BC were hits, while Columbia
was a miss. Danny was satisfied with the results, and settled on USF. The
rest of his senior year progressed without any major incidents.
The Bluegrass Festival that summer was going to be the biggest held
in years. Everyone was coming--from retirees to preschoolers to convicts
under special supervision. The hype surrounding the event grew and grew,
with rumors that it would even be mentioned in the New York Times. For
Danny, this year would be special. It would be his last one, as he had no
intentions of ever coming back. It was also be, although he didn't quite
know it yet, the first time Danny would fall in love.
Comments may be directed to hchen100@gmail.com. Compliments are welcome,
and flames are good for a laugh.
I do not know The Strokes, although if I did, I'd force them to make
another album. The quote above is from their song "Reptilia" from the CD
Room on Fire. Hope this works for all that copyright stuff. Later.